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The final weeks of the year are the perfect time for the family to catch well-made adaptations of heart-warming literary properties. This year, you can add Apple TV+’s charming mixed-media take on Margery Williams’ beloved 1922 children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit, to the mix. The story of a stuffed rabbit’s heartfelt wish to become a real animal coming true through the love of its owner has been adapted to a small-screen special.
Produced by Apple TV+ and Magic Light Pictures, the 40-minute special feature is produced by Emmy winner Martin Pope from a screenplay by Tom Bidwell. The animated character voice cast includes Alex Lawther as The Velveteen Rabbit, Helena Bonham Carter as Wise Horse and Nicola Coughlan as Playroom Fairy.
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Pope, who has produced numerous animated children’s specials throughout the years including The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, Zog, The Snail and the Whale and The Smeds and the Smoos, says he and his team at U.K.-based Magic Light Pictures are always looking for great stories that will resonate with children and families worldwide. However, it was actress Helena Bonham Carter who suggested the book to Pope.
“We love it when we find one, but then we have to find the right way to develop it as there is always a responsibility when working with great stories to do them justice,” he notes. “Years ago when we were doing a voice recording for The Gruffalo, the brilliant Helena Bonham Carter, who is an old friend from a previous film, gave us a copy of The Velveteen Rabbit and said I should try to find a way to do this.”
‘The Velveteen Rabbit is cherished by so many people because of what it says to them about the selfless nature of love and that’s an important message at any time.’
— Producer Martin Pope
At the time, Pope couldn’t take on the project, but years later when Bianca Rodway joined the company as development producer, she also suggested the book. “We felt now was finally the time to jump on such a wonderful opportunity,” he says. “We began to look for a great writer and got talking with the brilliant Tom Bidwell (Oscar-nominated short Wish 143, TV series My Mad Fat Diary) and together we all started thinking about how best to tell the story.”
Because Magic Light specializes both in animation and live action, Pope and his team decided to opt for whatever medium worked best to tell the story of the young boy and his stuffed rabbit. “The key is how best to connect our audience with the story — everything has to be at the service of that,” says the producer. “So the more we looked into the story of The Velveteen Rabbit and explored how we could make it really emotionally resonant, the more we felt that it had to be told in different media.”
The creative team knew that they wanted to tell the story both from the point of view of the boy who is given the rabbit at Christmas and of the rabbit itself. “That’s why we were already talking about mixing live action and stop motion, and then at the end of the story the rabbit has to become real, so we were talking about having CG-animated rabbits. Then, Tom Bidwell added these scenes of shared adventures, where the boy and the rabbit are exploring imaginatively together; those scenes needed to be in a different style, such as 2D. So, the mixed media approach absolutely grew out of how best to tell the story.”
“From greenlight to delivery has been just over a year, first of all with three weeks of live-action shooting with the wonderful young actor Phoenix Laroche and director Jenny Perrott,” recalls Pope. “Then, we were working with Rick Thiele and the brilliant team at Red Knuckles in London on the animation with each of the different techniques brought about in CG. We had a team of about 300 people working in both live-action and animation departments.”
Pope says in prepping the film, a lot of time was spent coordinating the interplay of live action and animation. “We had to figure out how the rabbit would work in all the media — and we had the fantastic prop rabbits built at Andy Gent’s AMS studio [Arch Model Studio] in London,” he notes. “So, animation pre-production started in the summer of 2022, which really doesn’t feel that long ago. All in all there was a lot of animation to do in a tight timescale, but I think Red Knuckles did a wonderful job in bringing those elements of the story to life.”
Claudia Brugnaletti had already designed all the toy characters, and in particular the rabbit, before filming, so that the boy could play with a prop which the team knew they would then bring alive in stop motion. “We’d also designed all of the other toys, and AMS made prop versions which we used as stand ins, mainly for reference in filming live-action scenes and helping prepare the plate shots,” Pope points out. “Of course, the stand-ins were removed as much as possible before filming or else painted out afterwards and replaced with the real toys. So, it’s been a really enjoyable — and complicated — project to put together, and we hope all that planning will make it feel to the viewer as though it’s seamless!”
Pope believes the story of The Velveteen Rabbit is quite beautiful and really emotional, and that the special’s script has captured those qualities in a magical way. “I loved being back on a live-action set having spent the last dozen years in animation,” he admits. “I also love the animation, which I think adds a wonderfully different dimension to the live action. I really hope kids in the audience will see a boy who’s just been given a new toy and then they’ll see that toy come to life and those kids will maybe wonder about their own toys.”
Gift of Imagination
When asked about the film’s visual influences, Pope mentions Ingmar Bergman’s seminal masterpiece Fanny and Alexander. “It remains one of the greatest about childhood and imagination,” he says. “We referenced it a lot at Magic Light Pictures. As more teams were engaged of course the range of references and visual influences expanded, but for me, Fanny and Alexander is an important influence.”
Pope says he and his team love making films which families and children can share together and maybe even enjoy more because they’re watching with each other. “The holidays are a wonderful time for that,” he notes. “So as well as The Velveteen Rabbit, we’ve got Tabby McTat premiering this Christmas in the UK. We are always delighted when our films bring together a happy audience.”
He also praises the team At Apple TV+ for their support of the project. “Apple has been a great partners on this, so from the first time we mentioned it to [Apple TV’s head of children’s programming] Tara Sorensen we felt we’ve found team who really understand what we’re trying to do, who would work with us and challenge us, and then push hard to make sure that worldwide audience of families can engage with it,” he notes. “When you’re pulling together a complicated production it’s important that you have partners who are on the same wavelength, who have your back and who share the same ambition and it’s been wonderful working with Tara and her team. “
At a time when the world seems like a difficult and challenging place for kids and families, Pope says he believes it’s important to make films where the audience can feel revitalized. “That’s why it’s been fantastic to work on a story which is about the power of imagination and how love can evolve and be liberating. The boy and the rabbit give each other so much, and the rabbit’s selfless love is transformative both for him and the child. The Velveteen Rabbit is cherished by so many people because of what it says to them about the selfless nature of love and that’s an important message at any time.”
The Velveteen Rabbit premieres on Apple TV+ on November 22.
